Giveaway and Guest Blog Post!

As you can tell from the book’s blurb, something happens in the story which threatens Jane Austen’s very existence and, as a result, her rich literary legacy. We thought it would be interesting to ask this question – of you, our readers, our guests and ourselves:

How would your life be different or affected if something had prevented Jane Austen from ever publishing her novels?

We’re delighted to welcome, as our first ever guest attempting to answer the question, the charming Miss Rita Watts from All Things Jane Austen!

Over to you, Rita!

Dear Tabby Cow readers

My name is Rita Watts, and I have a page on Facebook called All Things Jane Austen which has, at this moment, more than 21,000 followers. Crazy, right?

Outside the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton

No, you are actually wrong. This is just one thing that can happen when people enter the world of Jane Austen. She has the power. She is the ultimate superhero. Why? She travels across time and space and just gets bigger and bigger. There is no limit to the things she can make happen to you even though she no longer lives amongst us with an earthly body. It is because of her that I met a person who is now one of my best friends ever and one of the authors of this blog – Cass Grafton.

She asked me to tell you about my page on Facebook, but I think it is better if you just go there and snoop around whenever you feel like it here. There are albums for all tastes and inclinations. It has been a wonderful ride since I started it in 2012. However, my love for Jane is way older than that.

I first read Pride & Prejudice when I was around 12 and thought it was the best story ever. Skip many years, a college degree, a foreign husband, several different jobs, many different Austen adaptations and a new obsession emerges: Facebook.

It became quite important to me. I am a Brazilian girl living in the USA, very far from my family, because of my American husband. You will find me quite happy but also quite lonely. It’s 2011 and Facebook is finally a hit in Brazil, and I am able to connect to my old friends and family. From there, to connecting to other Jane Austen fans was just serendipity.

In Chawton Cottage

Not only have I found Janeites in Brazil, but everywhere in the world, including close to me – within driving distance! It is the miracle that is JASNA – The Jane Austen Society of North America. There are chapters everywhere, where they love Jane Austen so much they dress up in Regency clothing, to sip tea and read her books over and over, among many other wonderful events.

This is how Jane took over my life. I couldn’t have enough. She saved me from sure depression and a life lacking a bigger purpose – writing and sharing my love for all things Jane. I always dreamed about being a writer, but only after getting immersed in her world could I foresee a real possibility to become an author one day.

Cass and I in Chawton

So when Cass and Ada asked me to imagine my life without Jane, I just stopped in my tracks. A world without Jane Austen’s books? Unthinkable! Preposterous! What were they thinking? How dare they even imagine such a thing.

Well, apparently they really did, and now it is a book I cannot wait to read – just because, how would that be? What a nightmare! I must find out what they are up to! Meanwhile, I must imagine a world without Austen.

There are so many horrible possibilities, I can make a list:

It would be like turning off the power in the middle of a movie

Like watching the colors fade from your favorite painting

Going back to watching motion pictures without sound

Forgetting the words and notes of your favorite song

Gentle readers. I do have a life. I do have a family that I love dearly, but Jane is my beacon. I love her characters (mostly Mr. Darcy, of course – I’m only human) but to me she is the best character of all. A woman of little means defying the status quo of women of her time to the point of having the Regent of her nation asking for a nod in one of her works. Quite astonishing.

Jane’s Writing Table

The world is not done with her yet. Day after day people discover things that happened because of her and keep happening, despite anyone’s will. Some people would like to have her framed in time but she keeps coming back through her fan fiction authors, spreading her wings to unimaginable lengths and taking us with her.

Girls, what have you done? I must have this book to make sure it is kept safe and no one, I mean, NO ONE can make this come true, or I shall run M.A.D. (My Austen Disappeared).

Full of trepidation

Yours truly

Rita Watts

Thank you so much for being our first ever guest, Rita, and for such a great read!

The Giveaway!

We’re offering one lucky reader of this Blog the chance to win the following:

A copy of The Particular Charm of Miss Jane Austen (eBook or paperback, open worldwide)*

A laminated bookmark showing the topaz crosses given to Jane and her sister, Cassandra, by their brother, Charles

A map of Bath in the time of Jane Austen (specifically, from 1803, a significant date in the story)

A set of Jane Austen bookplates

A charming necklace with a quote from one of Jane Austen’s Bath novels

There will be further chances to win the same bundle of prizes each week (on a Wednesday) when each new guest posts their response to the same question.

* Books will be sent out once the release date is reached (early July)

How to Enter

Just leave a comment below, sharing with us how your life would be impacted if those wonderful novels had never been published, those much-loved characters never existed, and Jane Austen had remained completely unknown to the world. All those who comment will be entered into a draw to select the prize winner, which will be announced the following week.

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96 thoughts on “Giveaway and Guest Blog Post!”

Thank you so much Rita! I’ve obviously thought about this question a lot, but reading your post gave me a renewed energy or… fear almost of what it would be like to lose not just JA’s universe but any of the fictional universes that I hold dear and whom I have always depended on and continue to!

Your entry is delightful and the perfect introduction to this series of guest blog posts! Thank you!!!

Jane is amazing in her writing without it I would have no laughter of all the sarcasm of women to men, the stories she writes are more realistic then fiction. The things her characters go through could happen to anyone. I imagine myself as Lizzie every time I read P&P. Even as a young writer she was beyond her years. I could read her books front to back over and over in fact I have a couple times. The only thing I wish was that she had her own happily ever after.

Oh me too Jen! Although, as I get older I find myself equally distressed by not being able to witness how her writing would have changed as she aged. If she could write as she did so young, I honestly can’t imagine what sort of stories we would have gotten later on.

Had Jane not written her novels, I would not have seen the movies adapted to them, which would not have encouraged me to delve into the wonderful novels of Austen, and I would not love reading and would be uterly and completely bored. I neer knew about her until the 1995 P&P adaptation and then couldn’t rest until I saw every adaptation ever made, and then of course, read the novels. And then what in the world would I daydream about???

I had read Pride and Prejudice in school, and while I saw the humor, I didn’t totally get it either until I saw Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility. So adaptations were my road back to the novels as well!

I learned about JA when I was in high school when we watched P&P in 1995 and I was hooked. I learned about a culture other than my own. I loved it and was hooked since. I don’t know where I would be without JA.

Aside from the obvious, that many of the people I am friends with would instead be people I never heard of, I would have missed out on a huge proportion of the books I have read, not just the Jane Austen books. So many of the books I have read rely on Jane Austen’s groundbreaking books, or I found out about them because I read somewhere that Jane Austen read them, or someone compared them to a book by Jane Austen, or they were recommended to me by one of my Jane Austen friends. And then there’s the books *written* by my Jane Austen friends… My literary life would not be so rich without the books I have stumbled onto indirectly due to Jane Austen.

It’s the friendships that strike me first every time I think about this, Sandy!

Beyond that, I have to agree, it’s not just the loss of Jane Austen’s words and characters, but the loss of anything we may have gone on to read and enjoy as a result of reading her or knowing people who love her too and who can then recommend other great reads.

The world without Jane Austen’s books? Never!! Impossible!! Haha I cannot even imagine that such a great book as “Emma” doesn’t exist.. My favourite, lovely Mr Knightley made me believe (again) in true love and friendship, and gave me hope that maybe one day, I’ll find such a person. Sometimes I wonder why this character is so underrated and everybody thinks that Darcy is the best character Austen’s ever invented. As for other books – it’s different world, different time, but still they represent some of the values that are still important and crucial in our current lives, though sometimes we seem to ignore them. Anyway, I’m glad that Jane wrote those precious novels, and I’m so looking forward to see more adaptations and articles on them 🙂

I really like Emma too, Gosia. I just happened to catch the Jeremy Northam adaptation on TV this last Monday – he really was cute in that role! I have always admired Mr Knightley, and have done since I first read the book many years ago.

Good luck in the draw and if you don’t win, do please join in again in the coming weeks!

Thank you Gosia for commenting! That’s an interesting thing I don’t think we give JA enough credit for – the fact that her heroes really can be attainable. I mean, Mr. Darcy was not totally misunderstood. He really was prideful and cranky in the beginning of the book, (regardless of why he was – he was! if that makes sense)! I’m married to someone that has been known to be cranky now and then 😉 – luckily JA convinced me such men can also be loving and sincere so… another win for her!

Great Competition, Pride and Prejudice was the first book I read and enjoyed, first book that had nothing to do with school or homework set by my mother when I wanted to go out and “play”, As a man I have been snipped at that my fav book is a “girl” book and I should be reading Lord of the rings and Prachett. I don’t think I have read or should I say “met” a character like Elizabeth Bennet, Her spirit and her wit (Noel Coward eat your heart out) And after reading Pride and Prejudice I then devoured all of Austens other novels, Persuasion comes second too P&P imo, another superb heroine Anne Eliot. Austens books have carried me through my teenage years and now into my Adult years, I have revisited her books more than any other novelist. I love Tolkien the Silmarillion is a masterpiece, but Jane Austen observations into the human psyche, the everyday themes and feelings, feelings and actions we can all related to and identify with trump any other author for me.I love Jane Austen and I am sad that she was taken before her time. I have 16 copies of Pride and Prejudice I don’t know why the text doesn’t change but I feel that if I dont buy a copy every time I see a new cover I am doing a disservice too Austen, ridiculous I know.
Jane Austen has given the world, England and literature an identity all of its own and the world would be a sadder place without her beautiful novels.

Persuasion often vies with P&P for my favourite read. I think it depends on my mood! There are – with the book set in Bath – quite a few Persuasion references in this book.

I too loved The Silmarillion, but Jane Austen does win for me as well. I am confident it’s the everyday – the observations, human nature, the small details of day to day life and deeds – that help the stories to resonate as well today as they did when they were first published.

I don’t have quite 16 copies (about 10, I think) but I do love to collect them when I see them, so I totally understand your compulsion to do so. I don’t find it ridiculous, and I think Jane Austen would be rather touched.

Me too, Jen, re the happy ever after, but I like to think she was happy for a time, before she became too ill, with her success as a writer.

I agree it’s because she touches on the minutiae of life, so that you feel involved, that she still resonates with us 200 years later!

Thank you so much for commenting, and good luck in this week’s draw. If you aren’t successful, there are several more to come in coming weeks!

It is wonderful that you enjoy Jane Austen. I have this image in my head now that you could, even without your own personal insight, run a successful lecture circuit helping men understand gender interaction simply using illustrations from JA novels. And after you’d helped hundred of men understand relationships better (not simply with their significant others) you would show the last slide – that all they had learned had been from Jane Austen. Then you could drop the mic and walk out (the lectures would be prepaid obviously) ;).

I’m not sure if this is odd or not, but I was definitely more emotional reading Tolkien and more anxious reading Austen. I have a feeling that has to do with the fact that Austen’s female characters were so real, that I had real worry they would not choose right/ have their storylines resolved without tragedy. With Tolkien I was swept away more.

I dread to think of all the happy reading hours I would have missed if I hadn’t have found Jane Austen. Although I’d read older books when I was a child (The Secret Garden, etc.) I am pretty sure that Austen was my first foray into classic books for adult reading and I found them so accessible. It really gave me the confidence to try other classic authors. As well as that, after I’d run out of Austen books to read I was recommended to try Heyer, and I loved those too. I don’t know how long it would have taken me to find Heyer without Austen, and indeed who knows whether she’d have been writing Regency/Georgian romances without Austen’s books having existed? Many people think her books are following in Austen’s footsteps to an extent.

First read a Jane Austen novel when it was the set book for a school examination, might not have got such a high mark if it was another author.Then while at university I read all her books for the first time to get away from studying – who knows what I might have got up to. Over the years I have read them again and again but it is only the last few years and the discovery of fanfiction that Jane Austen seems to have overtaken my reading. I doubt I would have been introduced to Regency mystery without her. Trouble is there are so many unread books(and fanfiction stories) out there I might have to stop reading modern crime books

I could write a post purely on fanfiction and what it has meant to my life. Nevermind just Jane Austen Fanfiction. My introduction to fanfiction was an opening to (ok, this is going to sound incredibly cheesy) taking control of my own life. Seriously. Well, not that it changed much IN my life, but in my heart… and in my way of processing story. *incomplete sentence – where’s my writing partner to clean this comment up a bit?!*

Love the article!!! I’ve Come to Jane Austen books later in life (40’s) but better late than never… Her writings give you a sense of hope and promise.. Of a time if grace and elegance. I am now trying to catch up on her writings.

Tricky question:) I can’t be 100%sure, but I think that without Jane Austen novels my standards of what real (gentle)men should be would have been lower (I would have expected less and would have agreed for less):))). I might have been less romantic. I would not have known so many talented women and men from JAFF world and would not have enjoyed their engaging, witty, humorous, passionate books. I would not have improved my English by extensive reading. I might have been less interested in history. Yes, my cultural life would have been less rich, that’s for sure:) But maybe I would have been already married:)))))))) With Mr.Darcy, Mr.Knightley or Colonel Brandon as hypothetical examples I am still in search:)

Wow, Oloore! You make some excellent points. As for perhaps you’d already be married… these are the sort of high impact changes which crossed our minds now and again during the writing of the book.

Hmmm, Julian? Well, he’s a very nice, moral chap, but not socially gregarious, so not Bingley or Henry Tilney! I think the closest has to be Mr Knightley. I’m not 16 years his junior, but he does claim to have loved me long before I even realised I loved him!

I’m the founder of the AA (Austentatious Austenites) group in my area and celebrate her with a party every year for my 70+ members. Many of us are even making a pilgrimage to the ‘Holy Land’ (her birthplace) next year – need I say more!!

Without Austen I think I would have enjoyed English Lit lessons a lot less, admired Colin Firth a lot less, and have never joined the local Jane Austen Society (Kent Branch) and got the chance to take a turn around Godmersham Park in a regency gown refashioned out of my wedding dress, and to take to the newly opened Serpentine Walk at Goodnestone Park on the arm of Lord FitzWalter – Julian Plumptre, a descendant from the family mentioned in Jane’s letters, or to meet Adrian Lukis at a recital, after seeing him at the Assembly Rooms in Bath where my family and I participated in the Guinness World Record attempt for most people in Regency costume, or to spend the night at 4 Sydney Place, in the “Mr Darcy Apartment”, no less! Or to read heaps and heaps of variations and continuations, like revisiting with old, familiar, comfortable and much loved friends! Even meeting the cast of Red Dwarf at a Geekfest, with me dressed in period costume, in honour of their AustenWorld artificial reality episode! So many wonderful experiences and memories would be lost without Jane.

Gosh, Lee-Anne, that’s a long list of things you wouldn’t have done had Jane not published her novels! I’ve done a few of those myself, and I just can’t imagine not having those experiences or those memories!

Thank you for commenting and sharing your thoughts on this, and good luck in the draw!

It really is amazing how a community and a wealth of experiences can all hinge on a few novels and some excellent characters. This whole exercise has made me think more about how important art is honestly!

Without Jane Austen, I would never have been introduced to Mr Darcy! And I would never have made the most wonderful “on the tracks of Jane Austen’s life” journey, visiting such lovely places and houses. My love for British land and people wouldn’t be at its fullest if she didn’t exist.

I can’t imagine life without Jane Austen. I mean, what would I read? What movies would I see? What heroes would I swoon over? Life without JA, to quote Mary Bennet, would give me little pleasure! (and who would I randomly quote??)

I imagine she might not have realized what an incredible service she was doing connecting people together with her humor and romance. I wonder if she felt the same community with readers that enjoyed the same books she did since she had so much less opportunity to find those readers and have community with them!?

That is the genius of Jane. She goes beyond all times. You read her now in the 21st century, and she is so contemporary. Taking apart the etiquette of that era, women had the same dilemmas, and problems, we have nowadays. Thinking about the question of being without Jane. It is difficult to answer. I cannot think, imagine my life without her. Recently I heard a podcast talking about “Persuasion” and how the novel might be inspired by Jane’s real life. Though her love had not a happy ending, may be she wanted to give it through her novel. How poetic.

It warms my heart to see how stories written by a lady in the late 18th to early 19th century still resonate so profoundly with today’s readers and audiences! The new success of Love & Friendship will draw a whole new batch of fans to discover her works, her early works (written when so young!) and the adaptations – it’s a phenomenon and it just seems to keep expanding!

I too wish Jane had had a happy ending of her own, but I can’t help but feel she would have drawn great happiness for knowing the influence and pleasure her works provided across the years.

Terrific blog post (and lovely pictures)! Thank you Rita, Cass and Ada! I prefer not to think too much about what life would be like without the friendship and love that Jane Austen’s books have brought into my life. I am forever grateful to the teacher who introduced her to me and for the technology that introduced me to my dearest friends via the artists and writers inspired by Jane. I do wonder what Jane would feel to discover that her ‘bits of ivory’ had such an enormous impact on the world. That centuries after her death, we would be gathering in so many places and so many ways to celebrate her characters and their rich stories. What would this uncommon female with a wicked wit and keen eye for social observation make of the social media that has brought her fandom together? Being fortunate enough to have read some of their previous collaborations, I’m beside myself waiting for Cass and Ada’s take on a life without Jane. Loving the blog!!!

Thank you for such a fantastic blog
Post. Life without Jane would not be a very pleasant prospect. Ever since I discovered Jane at school I have been hooked which has led to many wonderful times including visiting Chawton and the Jane Austen festival. I love the community of Jane Austen fans, how people from all over the world can be brought together by their love of Jane. I also feel so lucky that I have a passion I can always turn to. If i have had a stressful day, If I am feeling down or sad, I can open one of Jane Austen s books or put on one of the adaptations and can be transported into another world.

I was very ill seven years ago when I first read Jane Austen. I’m still recovering, but the friends I’ve made in this community have been my life-line through the ups and downs of my treatment-resistant depression, social anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, and PTSD. Many of my dearest friends are people I’ve never met in person, yet we’ve clicked through mutual enjoyment of JAFF, and my happiness now depends on theirs. Even those who I don’t know well are special because my dear friends consider them as dear friends. This is my #1 obsession, and I adore seeing new blogs like these two, that keep it all fresh. Thanks!

Beautiful! Thank you suzanlauder for sharing. As so many people have mentioned, these stories hold up very well on their own, but the friends and community that build up naturally around them are special indeed!

Thank you for sharing your story with us, Suzan. Your words resonate strongly with me. Many of the online friendships I’ve forged through the Austen community have become stronger than some I’ve had throughout my life.

Becoming friends at the school gate, through work, being neighbours – it’s lovely, but there’s something extra special becoming friends with a soul mate who understands and values your love of something which has become essential to you.

I think that, without Jane Austen, I might not have started to study literature. My mother recommended her books to me years ago and at first, I was sceptical, but then quickly drawn into her world! I read them in my language first, but reading the original English is of course even better. Finding out that literature (and adaptations) is something you can do scholarly research about blazed the trail for me. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to read Austen-inspired fiction (except Death comes to Pemberley which I liked very much as it combines Regency and Murder Mystery)… Alone to find out that she practically invented free indirect speech is astonishing. Sometimes I wish there would be as lively a fandom in my country as in North America and England! Furthermore, her books and the adaptations are always a great joy and comfort, and her sharp wit and gift of describing people is singular .. Reading her early works is much fun also! (sorry for my English as it is not my mother tongue)

Thank you for this fantastic post and photos, they are so lovely. I’ve made such a journey to all Jane Austen places in England last summer. It was unforgettable! I could not imagine my life without Jane’s novels. It would be deffinitely much more different… First of all, I would never take such a great interest in british literature: it was only after having read Austen’s novels that I started to read novels by The Brontës, Elizabeth Gaskell and many others autors that are now my fovorites. And then, without these novels I would not be as optimistic in my everyday life as I am. As for JA films: they makes me always feel so much better, when I’m in a bad mood.

Agata, thank you for commenting! It’s clear Jane Austen has made a big impact on your life. I’m sure she would love to think she had drawn you into reading other writers with her works, and I know just what you mean about the adaptations cheering you up! Me too!

Good luck in the draw, but if you don’t win, there will be a new chance from tomorrow!

Though the giveaway’s over, I just want to share that the moment I finished Pride and Prejudice I knew my life would never be the same again. After that, I read her other works and it was like I’m welcomed to a whole new world. She showed me different views on life and love. She’s my ultimate heroine and I love her ♥